


Khajiit Tails

by KrystalMoon



Category: Elder Scrolls
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:46:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22636990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrystalMoon/pseuds/KrystalMoon
Summary: Two Khajiit find themselves in civil war-torn Skyrim. Adventures await them.





	Khajiit Tails

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

  
Fate has a funny way of changing our plans. They say that what’s meant to be may not always be what you want, but it will happen regardless of what you meant to. In that, there is nowhere one could ever possibly be that wasn’t intended.

Along the coast of an ashen Morrowind, at the mouth of a cave, slept an aspiring alchemist whose fate would soon drastically change her life forever. Earlier that day, the little suthay khajiit named Ahdahko had found the cave, had seen the beautiful array of different fungi and a strange glowing red plant that looked a lot like Nirnroot, and promptly set up camp to begin investigations on what kind of elixirs could be crafted from these items. But fate did not intend for her to continue her alchemy studies.

Ahdahko had no idea that she would be woken up in the middle of the night by a huge pahmar-raht in rags and shackles begging for her to help release him. Nor was she prepared for the slavers that would capture them both and shove them both into a cage aboard a ship. All her valuables were left behind and everything she owned… just gone.

The boat was not massive. It was maybe meant for a small crew hauling goods, but it had been gutted to make room for cages in the cargo area. The room was humid and stank of death and rot. Rats scurried about. Some of the cages were empty, but nobody paid Ahdahko any attention when she pointed this out. She fell silent when she saw that a few of the caged prisoners were dead, which were the source of the smell.

“I’m sorry you got dragged into this because of me…”

Ahdahko peered over at her companion with a frown furrowing her brow. The massive khajiit looked like a dark grey colored tiger with black stripes. In addition to the black striping, he had some unique white stripes on his face. Golden-amber eyes peered at Ahdahko in worry and sorrow. She noted that he spoke common with a strange accent. Almost argonian.

“Do not blame yourself,” Ahdahko murmured, turning her head to observe the others nearby.

Most of the caged folk appeared to be argonians and carthay khajiit. Ahdahko surmised they likely picked up the majority of them from a port in Cyrodiil before making their way to Morrowind. So their next stop must be somewhere near Skyrim, if not Skyrim itself.

“Is there an illegal slave trade ring in Skyrim?” she wondered to herself quietly. She had never been to Skyrim before. All of her knowledge on Skyrim was only what could be found in books. Since slavery was illegal in Tamriel, it was not likely slavery was reported in a book without the Empire shutting it down.

“You are a mage?” one of the nearby Argonians asked. “They did not put magic-restrainment cuffs on you.”

“They do not know yet that I can do magic, only that I dabble in alchemy,” Ahdahko said with a shrug.

“Do you know any spells that might be able to help us escape?”

In response, Ahdahko waved her hand at the cage and the door clicked as it unlocked. The stunned silence in the room was almost deafening. She repeated the gesture and re-locked the cage door.

“I do, but we need to time this appropriately. We are too far from shore by now,” she said in a thoughtful monotone. “Nobody appears to have the energy needed to survive the waves and cold water.”

“Desperation is a powerful thing,” responded one of the carthay khajiits nearby. “This one would rather die from drowning then be on this boat a moment longer.”

“We wouldn’t even get that far,” murmured another argonian. “We are too weak to fight against even a few of those dark elves.”

“We have a mage on our side.”

“I am only proficient in alteration and know a few restoration spells. In combat, I am no good,” Ahdahko muttered, flattening her ears. “And even if I was, unless one or more of us knows how to steer this kind of boat, our only option would be to swim to shore.”

“Perhaps, but if we wait until we arrive at whatever destination we are going to, it is likely none of us will have any energy to fight back…”

The conversation between the prisoners continued back and forth and got nowhere. In the end, they only felt hopeless and stuck. Eventually they had to fall silent when one of the dunmer guards came in to hand out measly scraps of food.

“We will all starve to death before they reach their destination,” muttered the first argonian darkly.

Ahdahko looked over at the dead prisoners at the argonian’s remark. Each of them appeared to have bled out rather than starved to death.

“If we are being sold as slaves, it would be bad practice to let their ‘stock’ die.” said the large khajiit Ahdahko shared a space with. “It is likely they will feed us just enough to keep us alive up until the final few weeks of the trip where they will fill us to make us appear healthy.”

“Even if that was their intent, I hear them partying nightly up there,” the argonian countered gravely. “Last night I overheard one of them say that they may not have enough food to last them the whole trip.”

“Which means they will have to stop to get supplies…” Ahdahko stated bluntly. “They picked me up far north of Necrom and continued going north… And Vvardenfell has no ports to speak of since the entire area is covered in ash and is mostly unlivable…”

“They will likely stop in Solstheim, then.”

“Solstheim has a large supportive population of dunmer, so that does seem the most likely scenario.”

“We could escape then, yes?”

“If we managed to stage a coup and escape onto Solstheim… What then? None of us have money and it is likely we will not be hired, even if we assume the dunmer won’t turn us back in…”

“Anything is better than this cramped boat…”

“No, he’s right,” Ahdahko murmured. “Best we wait for a chance closer to our destination.”

They fell silent once more, but this time it was not because of a guard but just that they were exhausted and didn’t want to talk about the subject further.

“Your manner of speaking is as strange as your accent,” the pahmar-raht said quietly to her after a while. “Where are you from?”

“I was born in Valenwood and raised in the western part of Cyrodiil,” Ahdahko stated offhandishly. “My father was actually a bosmer. My mother, a khajiit. An Ohmes. What about you?”

“I am not sure where I was born, though I suspect Elsweyr,” he answered, tilting his head at her curiously. “My adoptive parents found me off the coast of Black Marsh. They raised me and my adoptive brother, Ghul. Ghul and I travelled a lot when we came of age. So far we have seen much of Morrowind and Skyrim.” Upon mentioning his brother, the large khajiit seemed to get very sad. “We got split up when the slavers caught us camping near the border to Black Marsh. We were on our way back home to visit our parents…”

“Did your brother…?” She trailed off her question, unsure if it was too soon to ask or not. It could have been a very touchy subject and such a large khajiit being upset with her in such a small space was not a pleasant thought.

“He escaped. I bought him time to run. I thought perhaps he was tracking the ship, I had hoped that he would meet up with me after I made my escape attempt…”

“But instead you ran into me.”

His ears flattened shamefully in response.

“I am sorry…”

“What’s done is done. I do not blame you in the least for this,” Ahdahko said, lightly astonished. He did not seem convinced, however. She sighed. “My name is Ahdahko.”

“Mine is Tybriss.”


End file.
